I lost normal income several months ago when the Foundation at which I’d been working for 5+ years dissolved. Since then I have had one or two freelance jobs but I have been unable to find any kind of regular income.
This may owe to the fact that the things which I most love and excel at are recalcitrant to the prospect of monetary gain. My “real life,” if you will, is one of scholarship and philosophical research. I was fortunate in my former job, as these skills were valued there.
The only real solution may be to go out on my own, perhaps by starting up some kind of online academy of sorts. But such a venture requires a great deal of time, thought, and leisure to develop the right way. And of course working up this kind of project and getting it into motion requires money to live off of in the interim.
Getting down to brass tacks: What I was making at my previous job was $2,000 per month. Now, I’m told that this is a meagre amount to live on, but I seem to be able to do it just fine. I’ve also been told—by former bosses as well as business owners I know—that what I bring to the table is worth substantively more than 2k/month; nevertheless, no one seems to be actually willing to meet me there.
In any case, I would be much obliged to anyone who has the resources and willingness to help me out as I enter this transition of my life in whatever way they can.
Allow me to leave you with a little illustration…
In the traditional Hebrew household—wherein a large, multigenerational family lives together—everyone has their particular job to do to keep the home afloat, to make sure everyone is clean, fed, that all the necessities of life are met.
But there is one man who studies the Torah—and that’s all he does. From an economical standpoint, it looks as if everyone else works and he’s just getting a “free ride”: from a spiritual standpoint, however, he is serving each and every one of them as well. In this ancient tradition it is believed to be for the good of the entire home that there should be someone who devotes himself exclusively to the Torah, and the whole family appreciates it.
Thank you again.